40 
Mr. R. Swinhoe on the Oi'nithology 
sont blanchatres, mais elles passent au noiratre vers leur base, 
Toutes les autres parties de l’oiseau sont d’un noir de velours 
profond a reflets bleuatres, et passant au noir-violet sur le dos 
et les ailes”—whereas the back of our bird is of a burnished 
pink-purple. 
Iris dark blackish brown. Eye-skin and bill fine cobalt-blue, 
the latter with black tip. Legs violet-blue, with blackish claws. 
Gizzard roundish and somewhat flattened, \ in. in diameter, with 
a fixed rugose cuticle; containing remains of diptera and coleo- 
ptera. Intestine 6| in. in length; right csecum f in. from anus, 
the left ^ higher, both about in. long and adnate, of an oval 
shape. 
It is a grand sight to see this bird sitting upright on a 
branch, with its two tail-streamers hanging down, and quivering 
with the slightest breeze; but to see it spring on wing, and 
mark the whirling motion of the two long feathers, now coming 
together, now separating widely, and spinning in different direc¬ 
tions as the bird skirmishes in the air, is truly a magnificent 
sight. They seldom dart out far on the wing, but keep a good 
deal within the limits of a large tree’s branches. I have watched 
a pair of females engaged in the capture of insects. They stood 
very upright on the branch, with the tail almost horizontal, and 
leaping a little way into the air, would catch the fly and skip 
with it to another branch, seldom returning to the one they 
started from. 
The yearling has the bill and legs brownish, the blue of the 
eye-skin being more or less sullied. I am told that white 
varieties occur near Canton. 
59. Hemichelidon latirostris (Raffles)*. 
Very common. 
60. Hemichelidon ferruginea, Hodgson t. 
I only saw this once. I enclose the specimen for Mr. Sclater’s 
examination. 
* This seems to be Musicapa cinereo-alba (Temm.) of the ‘ Fauna Ja- 
ponica.’—P. L. S. 
t Agrees well with Indian examples of this bird in Mr. Gould’s col¬ 
lection.—P. L. S. 
